Incumbent Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, said he wants another term on the Hamilton County Commission because there are goals for his district he’s still working to accomplish.
“I’ve got things that I want to see through at my schools, as far as the facilities,” Helton said by phone. “I want to see some infrastructure built out, East Brainerd Road widened and the road widening through Apison. I wanna see those through to completion.”
He said he also wants to see some of the planned vocational schools open.
This fall, the Franklin-Roberts Future Ready Center is expected to open at the former BlueCross BlueShield Golden Gateway campus, which was purchased by the county for $10 million in 2023. The center will offer an energy and quantum industries academy, an entrepreneurship pathway and a Volkswagen engineering preparatory program.
“I just want to be around when those things happen and make sure nothing gets derailed,” he said. “If you don’t have somebody pushing, somebody from your district pushing on it, things will get unprioritized.”
Helton and Democrat Laura Bertrand are seeking to represent District 7, which includes East Brainerd, Apison and parts of Ooltewah.
Helton, 46, lives in East Brainerd, where he raised his two teenage daughters, and he said he’s seeking his second and last term on the County Commission.
(READ MORE: Democrat Laura Betrand wants to support Health Department)
This year, Helton pushed for a resolution that would have imposed a three-term limit on both the mayor and the commission, and it was passed in February. It has yet to be enacted into law because the Tennessee General Assembly has not passed it as a private act applying to Hamilton County. Once passed as a private act in Nashville, the commission must vote a final time with a two-thirds supermajority. An earlier proposal had been tabled.
“I really believe in it,” he said. “I will have completed the things I wanted to complete, and we have a deep bench of good people in District 7 who also have ideas and vision for our area.”
Helton said he is proud of the facility concerns, especially related to athletics, that have been addressed in his first term.
At East Hamilton High School, a new stadium with a turf field, track, baseball and softball areas is under construction, he said.
“We didn’t have that before, which was strange,” he said. “It was the only high school in the county that didn’t have them.”
Funds from a $260 million bond, which he and other commissioners approved in 2024, are also being used to address deferred maintenance at schools in his district and across the county.
When it comes to the debate over how Hamilton County should grow its unincorporated parts, Helton said he’s been working to balance the need for more housing with concerns about the negative impacts of development.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County commissioner bringing term limits discussion back to the table)
If both sides are frustrated with him, then he said he feels like he is doing his job.
“My goal is just to try to keep the temperature down on both sides,” he said. “I sit through the traffic just like everyone else who lives here.”
He said he wants to see infrastructure improvements, like the East Brainerd Road widening, that ease the strain of growth in his district.
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But he doesn’t endorse a build-it-and-they-will-come approach that could turbocharge growth even more, as has been the case in Rutherford County, where five-lane roads were cut through farms, he said.
“People say it needs to be built ahead of time,” he said. “I don’t know if I agree with that, but it needs to happen and in a more timely manner.”
Hamilton County commissioners are elected to four-year terms.
Jack Berry, a fence contractor and a longtime supporter of Helton, said he appreciates the fact that Helton’s approach to issues like growth is thought out, rather than reactive.
“I have never met anyone who votes more his conscience than he does,” Berry said by phone. “He is looking further down the road than just next week.”
OFFICE DETAILS
Duties: County commissioners set the county property tax rate, vote on the annual budget, approve county contracts and vote on local zoning requests.
District: District 7 includes East Brainerd, Apison and parts of Ooltewah.
Key issues: Infrastructure keeping up with growth, density guidelines of the county’s comprehensive growth strategy, funding increases for Hamilton County schools.
Timing: New commissioners take office Sept. 1, 2026.
Salary: As of fiscal year 2027, commissioners are paid about $28,600 a year.
THE ELECTION
The general election is Aug. 6, and early voting runs July 17-Aug. 1.
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
How should growth be managed?
“If you don’t want to pay more taxes, you’ve got to grow. But you’ve got to have the roads, the sewers, the schools and all the services that go along with it. We have not done a good job in the past doing that, and I think we’re trying collectively to do better.”
— Lee Helton, Republican
“Not looking at it district to district but neighborhood to neighborhood. The needs of East Brainerd are not the needs of Apison. We have got to, as much as possible, ask what does the community want here? I recognize that development is not going to stop, but trying to be as proactive as possible is in many ways the best thing we can do. Again, we need community engagement.”
— Laura Bertrand, Democrat
Should taxes be increased for schools?
“I don’t think so, yet. As long as sales taxes continue to grow, which they automatically get half of it. The state funds a very large portion of the school budget through the sales tax, which we don’t get to control. They automatically get half of every dollar of new taxes generated, and that’s why their budget’s up 40% in the last four years.”
— Lee Helton, Republican
“In my district, a tax hike could be really damaging to a lot of people. There are a lot of people in the district that are not wealthy. I do think that we have teachers who are bogged down in busy work more than in actually planning out their day and teaching their kids. I want to work with school board members on how teachers can be better supported in the classroom.”
— Laura Bertrand, Democrat
Contact projects editor Joan McClane at jmcclane@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.